cjsinla

So you're suggesting that somebody might've made the guitar in the early 80s, then later, put on a custom shop decal, took the decal off and cut the guitar up and threw it in the trash? Or are you saying that somebody went to a lot of trouble to make it look like it was an old custom shop guitar that had been destroyed by the custom shop? Hmmm, I'm suggesting that it might've been made in the custom shop, had a number of problems and that it was cut up and put in the dumpster. If that was the case, that would have made it newer than a late 70s or early 80s explorer. Did he say that the original pots were still in it? If so, he could get a date off them.

If that guitar had a Custom Shop logo on it, it would have to be newer than the prehistorics that were built in 82 and 83.

The headstock on my 79 mahogany Explorer is clearly different as far as tuner placement and bushing style.

I never saw any korina guitars until 82 and they didn't stay around for very long. The dates I've seen on the backs of pickups in the korina Heritage series has been 82, 83, and possibly 84. I believe they started making them again in 75 or 76 but they were regular mahogany until about 79. The maple and walnut ones came out in 1980 maybe. They have been making runs of the mahogany ones off and on since then

Yeah, what he said. Check out the link in the lounge to the video where the Gibson guys go to Sweetwater. Video

I just ordered a new Traditional, have not played it yet. I hope to have it by this time next week and will give you a review after playing it next to my 2013 Traditional.

Didn't you just buy it? If you don't mind me asking, how much did you pay for that guitar?

Did you figure it out yet? CTS pots have a 7 digit code that usually starts with 137. The next two digits are the year. The last two digits are the week of the year. I've provided a picture of the pots and my V. It can be hard to read them because of the soldering. However, sometimes you can figure it out by looking at several of the pots. The other numbers, two numbers, a – , followed by three additional numbers, are the Gibson part number. I was able to read 137802 on one of the pots. The 80 was the year but I could not make out the week but it really didn't make much difference to me. The part number on the pot is 70–031. The link on that site with the information about the guitar says that pot is a 300 K pot. If you look closely in this picture you can see some of the numbers.

I found this little article on a site about dating pots. http://www.vintageguitarandbass.com/gibson/FlyingV.php Flying V

My A series V has the date of May 1982 on the pickups. The volume pot is 1980, the tone pot is 1979 I assume mine was made in 1982. I would go by the date on your pups, too. 1983 sounds about right.

Looks like the real deal. Hardware looks like mine. Played mine at rehearsal yesterday They are very nice guitars.

What is that tan thing?

I'm going to have to pull the pickups on mine to see what date is on them. I'm still curious about when yours was made. Post more pics. Get a Photobucket or Flickr account, upload pics to that account. You can then post links here.

It looks a little light to be mahogany. Fender used to paint some guitars solid colors because they used multiple pieces of wood, wood they wanted to use up. It might still be korina.

Here's mine but I thought mine was made in 84. I got it when it first came out so it could be 82 I guess. I heard about some of the other colors and saw some kid playing a thrashed black one at a gig a few months ago. Mine came with a black guard but they did make some with white. As you can see, mine has the A XXX number. I was always of the impression that the flying V and the explorer were initially made mostly in the natural finish because that was the way they made them in 1958. I never heard of the one out of 20 story before. I believe that these guitars were made with the Shaw pick ups. I haven't taken mine out and looked at them but I took one out of my 82 Les Paul recently and as you can see by the picture, there is actually a date stamp on the pick up. The 682 means June 1982

The 2013 Les Paul Traditionals also have that setup. Overall, I like the sound of mine. The '57 + doesn't seem like it has that much more output than the regular '57's that are in my SG's. There is a notable tone difference but I believe that is due more to the fact that one guitar is a Les Paul and one is an SG.

I have a 79 Explorer with tarbacks, a 79 V with T tops and an 82 Les Paul with Shaw pickups. You are correct, the '57's sound different, more trebly than all of them. I really like the darker sound when playing at home but my SG Original with '57's really cut through a band mix at a gig the other night. So, it all depends on the setting to me. I played the Les Paul at a gig a month earlier and preferred that tone but got complaints that the tone was muddy and hard to hear. Currently playing through an '80's 100 watt JCM 800.

The above quote does not seem right to me. PAF's had the PAF sticker from about 1957 until around 1962 and the sticker was then changed from Patent Applied For to a sticker with the Pat number on it. Not sure when they started stamping the number into the base plate.

T-tops were all but gone by the time of the Shaw pickups in the early '80's and I don't believe Shaws were made after the late '80's. The Shaws commonly had the ink stamp that you mentioned but they were not the only pups with ink stamps. I have seen pics of pups with those textured bobbins and big screws on the bottom but I'm not sure what they are. The pup you have that measures at 13.7k is probably a ceramic pup, not sure what model. Also, most of the Gibson pups I've seen have that pat number on the bottom including Shaws and T-tops.

Try it at volume. In my experience, you will see little difference. If you are concerned, raise the polepiece screws on the low side, that's what I did.

I found this, might be helpful; The Gibson Les Paul Custom CAB V.O.S. is modeled after the legendary mid-50s model yet it also comes with some modern features. The mahogany top of the Gibson Les Paul Custom CAB V.O.S. is hand-carved, and it's fitted to a mahogany body with tone chambers to reduce weight and improve resonance. The neck of the Gibson Les Paul Custom CAB V.O.S. is made of mahogany and comes with the traditional rounded 50s Gibson profile, the rosewood fingerboard features beautiful block inlays. The Gibson Les Paul Custom CAB V.O.S. is equipped with two humbuckers: a 490R in neck position which delivers an authentic PAF sound and a 498T in bridge position that delivers a higher output with strong highs and mids due to the Alnico V magnets. The Gibson Les Paul Custom CAB V.O.S. features gold hardware and comes in a candy apple blue finish.

According to one info site: Gibson Serial Numbers, 1975-1977.All models, decal, 2 digit prefix followed by 6 digits. The decal can also state the model name/number. Prefix Year------ --- 99 1975 00 1976 06 1977

This story sounds suspiciously similar to another story about a Slash guitar from a couple months back.... As a matter of fact, I believe your original question was answered back in March in the Les Paul forum. Original post

Mine sits low, too. Hasn't been a problem yet. I have a 35 year old V with a bridge even lower than that and no problems.